In a continuing effort to improve the quality of shipping fruits, we, the inventors, typically hybridize a large number of nectarine, peach, plum, apricot, and cherry seedlings each year. The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of nectarine tree, which has been denominated varietally as "Fire Diamond". The present variety was hydridized in 1983 by us in a cultivated area of our experimental orchard at Bradford Farms near Le Grand, Calif. in Merced County (San Joaquin Valley). It was the result of a seedling using Early Diamond (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 5,438) as the selected seed parent and an unnamed dwarf peach seedling as the selected pollen parent. Subsequent to origination of the present variety of nectarine tree, we asexually reproduced it by budding and grafting, and such reproduction of plant and fruit characteristics were true to the original plant in all respects.
The fruit produced by the present variety most nearly resembles the fruit of the seed parent, Early Diamond (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 5,438), by being early in ripening, good in flavor, globose in shape, and almost full red in color at harvest time, but is most distinguished therefrom and an improvement thereon by harvesting 21 days earlier, making it one of the earliest ripening nectarines presently known. It is further distinguished from the Early Diamond by having purplish red blossoms instead of pink blossoms and by having mostly reddish brown leaves instead of green leaves from mid-summer to dormancy.